THE LAST LAIRD

Chapter 2 - Land of Faeries and Sorcery

A loud banging awoke me, bringing back memories of the night before. If there had been room, I would have fallen out onto the floor. I grabbed my fleecy robe from the foot of my bed and pulled it on just as a second volley of banging began.

"Alright, alright!" I muttered, pulling the door open. "It's only made of tinfoil, you're going to dint the door!" I peered at the large digital clock in the kitchen. Six am. After last night I thought I'd get a later start but it looked like my team were early risers. Seemed silly to me at this time of year when it was still dark. I found myself staring at my driver from the night before. His round cheeks were ruddy from the cold, he wore a knit cap over his close cropped brown hair but his beard kept his face warm.

"Oh, hi Cam." I was confused, probably half asleep. I looked around him but he seemed to be alone.

"Mornin' lass, I come bearing a message," he said. He didn't hold out an envelope or piece of paper so I waited for him to verbally pass it on. He cleared his throat. "It appears that the, er, dig has, er, been shut down." His face had gone even more red and I stared at him in astonishment.

"Closed down? What do you mean?" I'd come all this way, gone through the drama of last night, and it was for nothing?

"Oh, it'll be fine, it'll be fine, dinna worry lass. Maggie has gone into Inverness to sort it out. She got a message from London this morning, ye see, and she, well she's sorting it out, as I said." He was stumbling over his words and looking extremely uncomfortable, which is why I knew at once he was lying, or hiding something at the very least.

"Well, it seems the people at the Trust start early," I said drily, watching his face.

"Oh, well, it mighta come in yesterday, but Maggie was here, and she didn't get to check her computer until she got back, and it was verra late indeed, and it seems the fella we found, he doesn't know how to use a shower, and he flooded the bathroom, it leaked down to where the modem is and well, we lost the internet you see."

"Lost the internet," I repeated. "Tell me Cam, does Maggie have a phone at all? A mobile, a smartphone, ye ken?"

"Oh aye, aye I ken, of course she does and all, but the reception is awful at the pub, we usually use the internet..."

I let out a heavy sigh. "You said Maggie has gone to Inverness to sort it out, do you know how she intends to do this?"

He brightened at this question, rocking back on his heels, his hands deep inside the pockets of his quilted jacket. "Aye, I do. Ye see there is a chappie who lives there, name of Aaron Clark, works for the Trust, monitoring digs in the highlands and the islands. She knows him well, ye ken. Her Aunt Margaret, the one she's named after, may she Rest In Peace, was bridesmaid at the man's wedding."

"So she knows his wife?"

"Och, he's no longer married to her, no, and in fact he thinks he's well rid of her, he says it all the time, and he remarried as well."

"But he's still friends with his wife's bridesmaid?"

"Well, it seems his second wife is Maggie's cousin, the Aunt's daughter."

"Oh, I see. Well perhaps you should have just led with that."

"But that's not the reason he'll be accommodating, ye see that one, she left him for their gardener, and they live in Majorca now, have three kids including twins."

I didn't see that one coming. I was having trouble following the convoluted story, and I was a bit worried that with all this bad luck with Maggie's family and friends in the marriage department, Mr Clark might not be so 'accommodating'.